Monday 07 July, with Joko to Zadar

On our last day in Croatia we spend a long time sunbathing, probably the last chance we have for that. We need a second layer of tint, since our skin is peeling already.

After shopping in a supermarket at Nin we drive to Zadar where we have arranged to meet Joško, outside his work. So we can have a quiet chat with him without him having to watch all his customers. When we park the car we find out that we have left or lost our wallet at the supermarket. There was € 40 in it, but we don't feel like driving 20 kilometers back for it, right now. We will see tomorrow.

We start strolling through the town and sit down at a bar sometimes to have a drink or to eat something. Joško knows quite a lot to tell about his town. His family is originally Italian, but then he tells us this part of Croatia belonged to Italy until the 2nd world war. After the war it became part of Yugoslavia.

At the eastern side of the old town, which is situated on a peninsula, is a harbour and the old gateway. Joško tells us Zadar was once a Roman town, as we expected, and that the remains we have seen are indeed from a forum and a temple.

Much of the old parts have been destroyed in the last war. The town was bombarded almost every day, except for small periods of time when there was a truce. Joško has been lucky to survive and his way of dealing with his experiences. Not all people of his generation have been this succesfull and there are a lot of drug addicts in town.

From the boulevard we watch the colourful sunset and look at the many islands before the coast. Joško tells us there are 365, one for every day of the year. Joško, or his family, has a house on one of the islands and he invites us to stay there the next time we visit Croatia. That sounds very attractive.

We walk through town twice, once through the busy narrow streets in the centre and once along the quays at the seaside. Joško also shows us the narrow alley where he grew up, a very depressing place. In the towncentre it is busy with people from Zadar and tourists, so we find us a quiet place on one of the quays and enjoy the view.

Elisabeth is lucky the water of the Adriatic is quite warm, since she accidentally steps down into it.
After hours of walking and talking, eating and drinking we return to the campsite. We have had a wonderful time with Joško, one of our kind, so to say. As Joško says: meeting a Croatian in Japan. It is always great to meet someone somewhere in this world that we really connect to, as if we are members of the same tribe. Apart from the beautiful country and the nice weather this is a very good reason to come back here one day. Thanks for being special Joško, thanks for being yourself.